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Monday, 29 October 2007

The new US $5 bill was unveiled for the very first time in a very unique way on 20th September 2007. For the very first time Paper Money was unveiled live online. Here is a video of the presentation from the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

The new $5 bill is smarter, safer and more secure according to The Bureau of Engraving and Printing and really anything a government can do to make its paper money more safe and secure is more than welcome. Counterfeiters are always trying to improve their game a government that does not stay a couple of steps ahead of them will find that they have more counterfeits in circulation than real genuine currency. The changes and redesign of the $5 bill will make it much more difficult for these $5 notes be changed into $100 notes as was the previous practice.

The new note features two watermarks: on the right of Lincoln's portrait is a large "5" and on the left is a column of three smaller "5"s The embedded security tread is located on the right of the portrait, runs vertically and glows blue when held under ultraviolet light. the American symbol of freedom, the eagle and the shield are featured as underprints on the front side in purple. For a more detailed presentation of the new features in the US $5 bill please visit The Bureau of Engraving and Printing and explore this beautiful site.

Saturday, 27 October 2007

The first thing is for Collectors of Paper Money Banknotes to understand fully the dangers of storing their collection in inappropriate and sometimes dangerous folders, albums, plastics or places. One of the commonest mistakes is to buy albums with PVC plastic pouches that can easily degrade the notes in a couple of years. Products made with mylar plastics are appropriate or their equivalent.

Secondly it is important to decide about the system you would like to use to store your paper money items.

Most collectors want to show off their collection on a constant basis and would therefore need to use an album or portfolio with mylar plastic holders. This will help maximize the opportunities one gets to show case their collection very effortlessly. The single pocket sheets are the most fancy, others are divided into 2 to 3 pouches per sheet.

Other collectors have preferred to store their notes in boxes or drawers for easy access and are not really interested in laying out the banknotes for constant perusal. Handling should be kept to a minimal.

It is also important to prevent you collection from being accessible to the inquisitive children, keep them away from water, flooding, fire, and other disasters.

With these few pointers in mind you should be on the way to storing your paper money collection safely.

Wednesday, 17 October 2007

Normally I would store my paper money in an album that had pockets large enough to take the paper notes I'm collecting. Luckily for me writing this blog and the pure enthusiasm I have for the hobby has meant more reading and research than I ordinarily would have undertaken, with the great result of better knowledge and thus less regrets in the future at the state of my collection.

What do I mean by this? It has come to my attention that collectors need to be aware that storing paper money properly is very important. If care is not taken you could end up with badly discolored , brittle and disintegrated notes.

The main issue is to store in clear pockets where both sides of the notes are visible, in order to showcase your collection easily without too much direct handling. The next thing is to ensure that you do not use PVC products as these will eventually ruin the notes over time. This is very important as the damage done will not be visible or obvious for decades but believe me you will be sorry when 50 years on you find the notes disintegrated beyond repair as you attempt to remove them from the wallet you kept the notes in.

So if you cant use PVC products what can you use? Mylar or Mylar equivalent products are the best plastics available for this type of storage. Mylar plastics are archival safe and therefore suitable for any paper storage projects. I am told that you can easily decipher PVC from Mylar by the smell. PVC has a strong smell while this is absent from Mylar products or their equivalents.

Do remember to ask and specify what you require as a lot of suppliers and dealers will not necessarily inform you of the differences when you order.

This is definitely a case of expensive being cheaper than cheap! So do store your paper money collection safely, we'll talk in more detail about this in my next posts. My appologies for being a stranger. The past week has been very challenging, with a sick 3 year old it has been practically impossible to get down to writing, he's a bit better now. Talk to you later.

Monday, 8 October 2007

Just last week I stumbled upon some news item on the internet about the Nazi groups growing and spreading in at least one Central American Country, in an interview one of the leaders of a major group kept claiming that the claims of Holocaust during the 2ND World War were false and untrue.

Well according to the 755 images contained in the book Silent Witnesses: Civilian Camp Money of World War 11 by Ray and Steve Feller, he is quite wrong. The beauty and importance of collecting paper money continues to amaze me and fuel my appreciation for it.

This book covers quite a lot. It is definitely a catalogue of the money that exchanged hands during this period, but it is also a historical and social document, amongst the subjects covered are:-

the concentration camps of the German Reich

the concentration camps of the German occupied countries

the ghettos and their authorities

the axis, allied and neutral internment camps

and the post-war displaced person camps

After reading this book anyone wanting to write the holocaust off as a fantasy will find it very difficult to achieve, as we are reminded vividly about the inhumanity of human beings.

Yet again paper money has come up on top as one of the little bits of paper that wont let the truth of the inhumanity of the 2ND World War be swept under the paper.

Saturday, 6 October 2007

This weekend seems to be quite a busy one for collectors in general, there are numerous coin shows taking place all over the United States this weekend. Please find below a few of the shows that specifically include Paper Money or Currency.

Friday, 5 October 2007

This week marks the first 50 years of the inscription "In God We Trust" on US Paper Money. Prior to 1957 the inscription was on US coins during the Civil War. It seems though that the words meant much more to the Americans then than it does today.

This anniversary went unnoticed to a large extent.

I really wonder if it would matter at all if this inscription was removed from the back of US dollar banknotes completely.

You know the saying about wearing your heart on your sleeves, countries usually wear their hearts on their Paper Money. So does this inscription on US paper money banknotes mirror the heart of America?

Monday, 1 October 2007

Last week I found a brand new, pristine and uncirculated Canadian paper money note and got very excited, now I could start my Canadian collection, but to my surprise the dealer wanted far more than the note was worth for it. I was upset and asked him if this was a nice way to welcome a new collector into the fold. He got offended but decided to give me a benefit of the doubt as yet again another ignorant new collector. So he sat me down and gave me a lesson on the value of world paper money and how dealers come about their prices. I didn’t get the note in the end as I couldn’t really afford it (it was a high value note). But this experience made me think, and I started seriously looking into how the paper money banknotes are valued.

All collectors both old and new are advised to get a Standard Catalogue of World Money for starters, as a general guide for prices as well as a resource of information about World Paper Money. I found that the catalogues are useful but can usually give conflicting values for paper money in the actual market. It is important to note here, that all serious collectors do need to invest in a catalogue, they are invaluable to a collector though not the definitive value guide for paper money. Now back to the reasons for conflicting values.

Once you start collecting paper money a few reasons become very obvious, no one note even though of the same value is absolutely similar! This is so because for one thing, each note has its own distinct serial number, they may have been printed by a different printing company, or signed by a different official. Each may bring a different price tag along with it.

Another reason for a different price , could be the fact that the catalogues take such a long time to come to print that the information contained are more or less out of date by the time the catalogue is published and hits the bookstore shelf. Unfortunately, the information about the banknotes is rarely changed from one publication to the next, and is riddled with errors such as wrong or missing images and missing date and signature variations, thus making the information provided inaccurate.

One obvious mistake even I have made is to value current notes at their exchange value in today’s market. This is a very unrealistic approach for a dealer. If you are getting uncirculated banknotes you will have to pay premium value for this, also shipping and profit added will not give you face value. One dealer I took on about wanting to make a kill on a note gave me the low down so now I know that paper money collecting is not as straight forward as the catalogues would make you believe, values will differ depending on circumstances.

So the next time you want to get a new note to add to your paper money collection, don’t be too fast to right off your new find as a bargain or a total rip off, there are other factors you need to take into consideration.

Image is of the front side of current Canadian banknotes copyright of the Bank of Canada